Tag: Christopher Johnson

Adam Gase to meet with Christopher Johnson soon: ‘I’m not gonna predict anything’

Adam Gase said he will meet with Christopher Johnson soon following the Jets’ season-finale against the Patriots.

It won’t be much longer until Adam Gase definitively finds out his future with the Jets.

Gase said that he is “sure” he will meet with Christopher Johnson either Sunday night or at some point Monday following New York’s 28-14 loss to the Patriots in Week 17. Although his fate is likely sealed after compiling a 9-23 record in two seasons with the Jets, Gase is avoiding speculating what his meeting with Johnson could entail.

“I don’t know,” Gase said, per NorthJersey’s Andy Vasquez. “I’m not gonna predict anything.”

NFL Network reported Saturday that Gase would likely be fired following New York’s season finale against New England. The expectation is that the search for New York’s next head coach will be a long and thorough process, with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Ravens DC Don “Wink” Martindale, Titans OC Arthur Smith and Rams DC Brandon Staley among the pro-level candidates.

Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and Florida’s Dan Mullen were also mentioned as candidates from the college ranks that could receive consideration.

With the Jets starting the 2020 season losing their first 13 games, the writing has been on the wall for Gase for the last couple of months. Barring a major change in thinking, it is highly unlikely Gase leaves his meeting with Johnson gearing up for his third season as Jets head coach.

Adam Gase says he has not been informed of his Jets fate

Contrary to a report from WFAN, Adam Gase declines he has been told by Jets ownership that he will be fired at the end of the 2020 season.

Adam Gase’s days as Jets head coach are likely numbered, but he has yet to receive any indication of his fate with the organization from New York’s brass.

Gase denied a report from WFAN that said Jets ownership already told him he would be fired following Sunday’s season finale against the Patriots.

“That was news to me,” Gase said Wednesday, per the New York Post’s Brian Costello. “No one has said that to me.”

While nobody in the Jets organization has offered Gase a definitive answer on his future with the team, the expectation is that Christopher Johnson will pull the plug after the Jets wrap up the 2020 season in New England.

In two years with the Jets, Gase has compiled a 9-22 record. New York has won two straight games since starting 0-13 and players have recently come to his defense when asked if he should return in 2021. However, Gase’s failures to get Gang Green’s offense pointed in the right direction (the Jets have the No. 32 offense in the NFL for the second straight year) and his inability to effectively oversee Sam Darnold’s progression are likely to do him in.

“I learned probably when I was 22 years old, Nick Saban told me you do your job until somebody tells you different,” Gase said. “That’s what I’m going to be focused on. My job is to get us ready to go this Sunday and try to win a game.”

Adam Gase admits he let Jets CEO Christopher Johnson down

The Jets coach recognized his failures over the past two seasons.

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Adam Gase offered a three-letter response when asked if he feels like he’s disappointed his boss, Jets CEO and Chairman Christopher Johnson. 

“Yes,” Gase said Tuesday, per the New York Post.

It’s not hard to see why Gase feels that way. Not only are the Jets 0-13 and possibly heading toward a winless season, but Gase is 7-22 overall as New York’s head coach and his offense ranked 32nd in yards during both of his two seasons. Sam Darnold, who Gase was hired to groom, has also regressed tremendously in Year 3 and could be on his way out if the Jets target a quarterback in the 2021 draft.

Gase’s Jets were also mathematically eliminated from playoff contention before Week 15 in each of the past two seasons. That’s something Gase specifically mentioned when discussing how he feels he’s let Johnson down.

“For him not to feel a playoff feel of being competitive in December, it’s disappointing to me that we haven’t been able to do that for him,” Gase said. “I’ve told him multiple times [that] he deserves better, especially with how he is with our players, our staff, our coaches, anybody involved in this organization.”

But his response didn’t end there. Gase continued by offering his side of the story about how he’s tried (and, as he admitted earlier, failed) to fix things over the course of his tenure, despite insurmountable evidence to the contrary.

“I’ve tried to figure out where things went wrong, what can we change. You’re trying to evaluate things as you go and adjust to try to fix whatever the issue would be for that month or that three games or four games,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about winning.”

Gase went on to praise Johnson for his patience with his coach and the team over the past two seasons. Every conversation between the two has been about making the team better rather than blaming anyone, according to Gase, and Johnson has never been angry toward the coach.

“I couldn’t ask to work for a better guy,” Gase said. “He’s like all of us. He wants to win as much as we do. He can see the effort the guys are playing with. We’ve just got to find a way to finish some of these games.”

5 possible reasons why the winless Jets haven’t fired Adam Gase yet

Jets Wire takes a look at some possible reasons why New York has yet to fire Adam Gase.

The Jets have never fired a head coach in the middle of the season, but it is still difficult to understand why Adam Gase is still roaming the sideline.

Gase has been an unmitigated disaster as New York’s head coach and 2020 has been the worst of the worst. The Jets have been largely uncompetitive throughout the year and have yet to notch their first win with only five chances left for them to do so.

There’s no doubt that Gase’s days with New York are numbered — it’s nearly impossible to imagine any circumstance in which he returns in 2021. What has kept him with the Jets this long, though? Here are five possible reasons why Gase has yet to be shown the door.

Jets owner Woody Johnson leads NFL in recent federal campaign contributions

Woody Johnson has donated about $2 million to Republican Party campaigns.

Jets owner Woody Johnson has been one of the top sports owners to donate money for political purposes.

According to USA TODAY, Johnson has donated $1.99 million to Republican campaigns during the 2019-2020 election cycle. He ranks second among sports owners who have donated the most money to political campaigns and leads all NFL owners in that span. Johnson’s donations have been spread out over three donations of at least $360,000. Only San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson has donated more money among sports owners in that span at about $3.25 million.

The Jets’ Johnson, a Republican, has been an ambassador to the United Kingdom since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. Johnson’s brother, Christopher, has been running the team’s day to day operations ever since.

If Trump loses this year’s election, Johnson could come back and run the Jets. It is also possible that Johnson, 73, would not remain in his ambassadorial role if Trump were to be re-elected. Neither he nor Christopher has provided much clarity on the plan for the team moving forward.

Johnson made headlines earlier this summer for allegedly making inappropriate comments about women and Black people, in addition to accusations of corruption, while serving as ambassador. The State Department inspector general investigated Johnson for his remarks and found that Johnson did make “inappropriate or insensitive comments.”

Johnson denied all of the allegations against him and received full support from his brother.

Report: Jets executives evaluating Adam Gase over next 2 games

Adam Gase’s seat is starting to warm just two games into the 2020 season.

Adam Gase’s seat is starting to warm just two games into the 2020 season.

According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, high-ranking Jets executives are keeping an eye on Gase over New York’s next two games. The Jets are in Indianapolis on Sunday before hosting the Broncos for Thursday Night Football in Week 4.

Mortensen’s report follows an 0-2 start from the Jets. New York is banged up and has played poorly on both sides of the ball, but it is Gase’s inefficient offense that has drawn the most criticism from fans and media. Bradley McDougald and Avery Williamson also publicly voiced complaints about the team’s practice habits, a poor reflection on the coaching staff.

Jets CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson offered his support for Gase following New York’s Week 1 loss to the Bills, calling him a “brilliant offensive mind,” but a vote of confidence after just one game didn’t exactly suggest all is well. The Jets have never fired a head coach during the season before, but the organization has taken lots of heat over Gase’s performance despite the abundance of injuries plaguing New York this season.

Entering Sunday’s Week 3 contest, Gase is 7-11 as Jets head coach and 30-36 for his career. Should the Jets lose by 10 or more against the Colts, Gase will have as many double-digit losses for his career as he does total wins.

Is Christopher Johnson the only one who doesn’t see it?

Is Christopher Johnson the only person who cannot see Adam Gase’s shortcomings as a head coach? That seems to be the case.

Adam Gase’s incapability has never been clearer following the Jets’ 31-13 loss to the 49ers in Week 2.

To say Gase’s offensive gameplan against San Francisco was disastrous would be an understatement. Despite the 49ers missing Richard Sherman and losing Nick Bosa and Solomon Thomas in the first quarter, New York’s offense appeared timid going up against a defense with plenty of All-Pro talent left over. Yes, the Jets were without Le’Veon Bell and Jamison Crowder and lost Breshad Perriman and Chris Hogan mid-game, but a depleted depth chart was not the only reason New York struggled so mightily on Sunday.

Once again, Gase was as big a culprit as any.

Let’s start with the fact that Sam Darnold was not allowed to audible out of a 4th & 1 run play that never had a chance of working against a loaded box of defenders. How is it that a third-year starting quarterback, one who is supposedly the face of the franchise, is not allowed to make a simple read and put his offense in the best position to succeed? Gase said it’s “his call” and Darnold attributed the play’s failure to poor execution. But let’s face it: Gase is not adept at making the right calls.

There is also Gase’s constant misuse of his tight ends, which could be a fireable offense in itself. Chris Herndon and Ryan Griffin both have good chemistry with each other and Darnold, yet they have been seldom used in the passing game despite New York’s barrage of wide receiver injuries. Through two games, Herndon has seven receptions for 42 yards, while Griffin has yet to see a single pass thrown his way in 2020.

It would take a novel to accurately address all of Gase’s shortcomings in only two weeks of action, but that is a book Jets CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson would likely have little to no interest in reading based on his comments last week. Following the Buffalo game, another ugly loss for the Jets, Johnson backed Gase and called him a “brilliant offensive mind.”

With another defeat now in the books for reference, those comments beg the question: Is Johnson the only one who can’t see how incapable Gase is as a coach?

Gase has received plenty of well-deserved heat from the media and fans since the beginning of the season, as well as last year. His seat should resemble an inferno right now, but Johnson has given no indication that Gase’s job is on the line, at least not immediately. Meanwhile, New York’s offense is among the worst in the league for the second straight season.

There is no way Gase lasts past 2020 if the Jets continue to embarrass themselves on a weekly basis, but Johnson’s inability to understand how Gase is failing his players is a major cause for concern. What if Johnson attributes New York’s struggles to injuries and a roster that Joe Douglas still needs time to rebuild? What if he, for some reason, decides Gase deserves one more chance at redemption in 2021? This was Johnson’s first hire, after all.

Gase’s days as a head coach in the NFL should be numbered, but with Johnson running the show, you just never know. It’s time for Johnson to hold his head coach accountable, but he doesn’t seem to realize what is right in front of him, at least not publicly.

Gase is the reason the Jets are a laughingstock right now, and all signs point to Johnson being the last to find out.

It’s never good when the owner has to give a vote of confidence one week into the season

It might not seem like it after getting some public support from his boss, but Adam Gase is in trouble. The Jets looked awful in their season-opening loss to the Bills. Their offense was putrid and their defense stumbled, missing easy open-field …

It might not seem like it after getting some public support from his boss, but Adam Gase is in trouble.

The Jets looked awful in their season-opening loss to the Bills. Their offense was putrid and their defense stumbled, missing easy open-field tackles and allowing Josh Allen to look like an All-Pro quarterback. Gase made head-scratching decision after head-scratching decision and did absolutely nothing to put New York in a position to win — something that has become commonplace since his arrival in the Big Apple.

Despite the Jets looking as bad as they did in Week 1, CEO and chairman Christopher Johnson met with the media earlier this week and voiced his support for Gase. In fact, he went as far as referring to New York’s second-year head coach as a “brilliant” offensive mind, reaffirming his confidence that Gase can be the coach who leads the Jets back to the postseason.

“I have full confidence in Adam,” Johnson said, per the New York Post. “I’ve seen him interact with this team. I’ve seen him lead this team. Look back to last year, he took a team that did so poorly in the first half of the season and held them together. They finished well. I think that he has a lot more in him as a head coach than some of our fans are giving him credit for. I understand. They want to see success. I think that they will.”

Johnson’s kind words might make it seem like Gase is safe from the hot seat after only 17 games as Jets head coach, but that could not be further from the truth. In reality, the fact that the coach required a public vote of confidence just one game into the new season reinforces the idea that Gase is skating on extremely thin ice.

That Johnson had to make those comments says it all. If Gase was actually doing a good job, Johnson would not have needed to regurgitate the same baseless claims he has been saying about Gase since he hired him. He would not have had to say anything at all.

The truth is that Gase’s offenses — outside of the ones featuring Peyton Manning — have never demonstrated any sort of brilliance. Supposed offensive geniuses are supposed to have their quarterbacks thriving and their offenses moving the ball at will. Instead, Darnold looked like a lost puppy under center last week and Le’Veon Bell has looked more like a career backup than a former All-Pro. The sad truth is, New York’s offense has regressed to the point where anything more than a three-and-out on any given series is cause for celebration.

Under Gase’s watch last year, the Jets ranked 31st in points per game (17.3) and third-down percentage (30.7% conversion rate), as well as dead last in total yards per game (273) and yards per play (4.6). Those numbers do not do much to paint him as an offensive mastermind.

They paint him as a coach who has no business running a team.

The Jets are not a good football team right now. They haven’t been since Gase took over and they don’t figure to be one as long as he is on the sideline. You can say what you want about the gaping holes at numerous positions on New York’s roster, but the fact remains that Gase formulates gameplans that simply do not work. His team often looks unprepared and uncompetitive. That falls on him.

Week 1 was the beginning of what could be another ugly season at One Jets Drive. If the Jets continue to rack up losses, Gase is going to be out the door. That’s the bottom line, sweet talk or not.

Don’t put stock into any praise Johnson has heaped on Gase. If anything, Johnson feeling the urge to speak out so early in the season is indicative of how bad of a job his head coach is doing.

Jets to honor Betty Wold Johnson with commemorative patch in 2020

The Jets will be honoring Betty Wold Johnson, late mother of owners Woody and Christopher, with a commemorative patch for the 2020 season.

The Jets will honor Betty Wold Johnson, the late mother of owners Woody and Christopher, with a commemorative “BWJ” patch that will be on the team’s jerseys this season.

Johnson died at the age of 99 in early May. 

The matriarch of the Johnson family, she was a known philanthropist and long-time contributor to arts, education and healthcare initiatives throughout the New York and New Jersey area, according to the team’s release.

“She was definitely the First Lady of the Jets,” former running back Curtis Martin said. “She had such a presence there. And as far as the players being like grandchildren to her, I can definitely see that because she was such a warm person. She had a personal interest rooting for the Jets, but just her energy, she had a younger person’s energy. And she was just very approachable to everyone who met her. I just loved her as a human being.”

When the Jets take the field Sunday, they will be among five teams that will be wearing commemorative patches this season.

Jonotthan Harrison: Jets have not discussed sitting out regular season games

According to Jonotthan Harrison, the Jets have not discussed sitting out regular-season games in protest of social and racial injustice.

The Jets canceled practice on Thursday to discuss social and racial injustices in America in wake of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin. That dialogue will continue throughout the season, but not at the expense of any regular season games.

According to Jonotthan Harrison, New York’s conversation did not center around sitting out any regular season contests. The decision to cancel practice was not a protest, either, as the day was used to engage in respectful discussion and debate before returning to the field on Saturday after an already scheduled day off.

“I’m very, very hopeful and very confident that something will come of this,” Harrison said, per the New York Post. “Some change will be made and not just in the Jets organization, but you are seeing other organizations that are realizing what’s going on as well and that they’re buying into this.

“We have too powerful of a platform to not use it. We’re being extra cautious that we’re not misconstrued as trying to attack anybody or anything. We just would like to see some change.”

The Jets’ decision to not practice came after Wednesday’s postponement of all NBA and WNBA games, as well as a few MLB games, as a form of protesting the Blake shooting and racial and social injustice in the United States. The Indianapolis Colts and Washington Football Team were among the teams that also canceled practice, while the Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears delayed their practices to discuss social change and issues.

Prior to Thursday, CEO and acting owner Christopher Johnson spoke during a virtual team meeting on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Bradley McDougald and Jamison Crowder shared their hopes for potential action with reporters, as did Marcus Maye earlier in the week.

“At the end of the day, you have to think about it,” Harrison said. “Literally, there are men in that locker room and men and women in this organization, in this building, that have children at home that could be in that situation. So this just hits home. It hits so deep for a lot of people and so I’m thankful to be part of an organization that’s just willing to bind together and help find a way to make some change.”